Day of shootings and bomb attacks leaves 11 Iraqis dead

SHOOTINGS and bomb attacks in Baghdad and Iraq's main northern city Mosul mostly targeting officials and security forces killed at least 11 people on Saturday, the country's deadliest day this month.

In the bloodiest attack, twin roadside bombs in a market area in the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Kadhimiyah killed at least seven people and wounded 49 others, an interior ministry official and a medical source said.

The two blasts struck the Baab al-Darwazah area in the predominantly Shiite district.

Also in the capital, gunmen armed with silenced weapons opened fire on a police patrol in Shaab, north Baghdad, killing two policemen, the officials said.

An official working at a prison on Baghdad's outskirts was meanwhile shot dead by gunmen as he was driving along the Al-Qanat highway in east Baghdad, according to justice ministry spokesman Haidar Saadi. Another prison official, who was in the same car, was wounded.

And in Mosul, 350 kilometres north of the capital, gunmen killed a soldier while he was outside his home on leave in the east of the city, security and medical officials said.

Saturday's overall death toll was the highest in Iraq since September 30, when 33 people were killed and 106 wounded in towns and cities nationwide.

Violence is down sharply across Iraq from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks are still common, especially in Baghdad and Mosul. At least 250 people have been killed as a result of unrest in each of the past four months.

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